Chapel Choir

The Chapel Choir sings choral music to the highest standards for weekly services at school. The choir’s repertoire is drawn from 500 years of European sacred and English Cathedral music as well other genres such as opera choruses and song arrangements.

The choir currently has around 60 members. There are many ex-cathedral choristers in the choir, including boys and girls from Lichfield, Gloucester, Wells and Winchester Cathedral choir schools. Several members of the choir have gone on to hold choral or organ scholarships at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham universities.

The choir’s main role is to sing at Sunday morning Chapel services during term, as well as at occasional special services. The choir also makes visits to sing Choral Evensong at churches in Shrewsbury and elsewhere, as well as at major cathedrals. In recent years these have included Lichfield Cathedral, Jesus College Cambridge, The Queen's College Oxford, Tewkesbury Abbey and St George's Chapel Windsor. In addition the choir has been involved with other exciting projects, including three filming sessions for the BBC television programme, Songs of Praise, and a Sunday morning service for BBC Radio Shropshire that celebrated the 200th birthday of our most famous Old Salopian, Charles Darwin.

New members are welcome to join the choir at any time. All pupils can join the choir although those with a strong choral background, or those with good sight reading skills, are particularly welcome.

The choir is run by Alex Mason who has been the Director of Chapel Choir at Shrewsbury School since 2011. Alex Mason was educated at Oxford University, the Royal Conservatory The Hague and the Royal College of Music and has held posts at Lichfield and St David's Cathedrals. As a choral conductor he has directed first performances of David Briggs, Francis Grier and Alexander L’Estrange, including the Welsh premiere of L’Estrange’s ‘Zimbe!’. At St David's he directed the Cathedral Choir on BBC Radio 3, two CDs and tours of Bulgaria and Germany. He has also conducted numerous works for chorus and orchestra and set up children’s, youth and adult choirs and led singing programmes in primary schools across the UK. He is also a regular organist and tutor for the Eton Choral Courses. As an organist he is particularly well known as an improviser and he has improvised ‘live’ on BBC Radio 3 and Radio France and recorded for Signum, Decca and Regent record labels.

Wednesday 21 November 2018

12:35

Lower Sixth Assembly: "Speed-reading - A short Introduction" Dimitri Portier, Head of Sixth Form (Ashton Theatre)